St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-30
STORIES OF UNsER FRITZ
He Likes a Joke, Even on Him.
self, and Knows How o * eep His
Temnar

He Likes a Joke, Even on Him.
self, and Knows How % X eep His
Temper.
With regard to his conduct toward
his interiors, innumerable anecdotes
sufficient, indeed, to fill several volumes
are eXtant, showing his Kindness of
heart and consideration for 9TH
ers. The difficulty, = says a
Tribune, is to know how to make
the selection from those at my disposal.
Probably the prettiest one is that of the
schOolmaster OfBOrnstedt,a little village
on his estate near POttsdam. One day
when passing the village school house
he stopped. and making his way into the
class room, sat down and began to listen
attentively to the lessons. Suddenly a
telegraph messenger made his APP
pearance and handed the teacher
dispatch announcing that his mother
was dangerously ill and wished to see
him at once before she died. The crown
prince noticed his blanched face, imme-
diately inquired what was the matter,
and. on learning the contents of the dis
patch. babe the poor man hasten to his
mbther's bedside, saying that he him
self would look after the school
until arrangements could be made
for obtaining substitute during
the teachers absence. Accord
singly, for more than two hours the
crown prince took sole charge of the
school, rapping the idle ones good-hu-
moredly over the knuckles and reward
ing the diligent ones until the arrival of
the village parsOn for the purpose of
holding his bi-weekly Bible class. By
the afternoon substitute had been
found, but the. prince continued to
superintend matters personally and in
the closest manner until the regular
teacher returned after the funeral of
his mother.
AT court dinners / have frequently
seen him, when the guests had risen
from the table, call up the pages Of
honOr-mostly boys of noble birth be-
longing to the cadet SchoOl-who had
been helping in the service, and, after
chatting merrily with them for few
bons from the table and stuff
them in the boys pockets
and occasionally in their mouths.
Sometimes he would stuff the
latter as full as possible. and would
then ask some question demanding an
immediate reply, Nothing could be
more ludicrOus than to observe the
frantic efforts of the cadet to make a
fitting reply, while his mouth was
crammed full of marrons, glaceS and
other sticky delicacies. How diff
ferent this from the manner in which
the pages of honor are treated at Wind
scr and Osborne, where, during the
whole time of their service, they never
have word addressed to them directly
by their royal mistress, but receive all
her communications through the inter-
mediary of the lOrd-in-waiting, OF some
other equally lofty functionary of the
household!
There is nothing that "Unser Fritz"
is fonder of than joke. but, unlike the
English princes he knows how to keep
his temper when the victim retaliates in
kind. Many of these merry encounters
used take place at the swimming estab-
lishment of the guards regiment at
POtsdam, where he was con-
slant visitor. His appearance
there was always hailed with de-
light, and was the signal for the begin
ming of IA series of aquatic "larks." A
splendid swimmer and expert diver, he
was, nevertheless, ducked by the sol
diers as often he ducked them. One of
his greatest delights was getting a
crowd assembled on the raft floating in
midstream. and then capSiZing himself
and those with him pell-mell into the
watpr